Mind For Music

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Frequently Asked Questions

1.) What exactly is a musical transcription?

A musical transcription is the result of a person (usually a musician) transferring the performance of another musician or ensemble from an audio recording or live performance on to sheet music to be used for study or to share with other musicians. Transcribing is one of the best ways to improve your musicality and grow as a musician. If you talk to any good musician they will certainly tell you about all the time they spent transcribing solos of their favorite players, and how much they benefited from doing so.

2.) I am looking for a transcription of ________ by _________, do you have a copy/know where I can find one?

No, anything I have for this website gets posted automatically very soon after it is sent. I don't have any files that aren't already on here, so if you can't find it, I probably don't have it. Try checking the various different Artist, Album and Song pages to be sure, but if not, I would suggest looking into the official publisher of the work (a quick google search can give you that info).

3.) Why aren't their alot of tabs on your website?

Tablature is a great way to learn music for the guitar and bass guitar. Unfortunately tabs only apply to those two instruments, which leaves plenty of other instruments out in the cold when it comes to finding transcriptions. Furthermore, tabs (usually) don't contain any rhythmic or time feel indicators, which is so crucial in most form of jazz and improvised music. There are plenty of great tab website out there if you search them out, but sorry you wont find any tabs here.

4.) Is sharing transcriptions legal? Does this violate any copyright infringement laws?

According to the copyright laws in most countries, sheet music may be shared in an educational context. This is so that professors at music universities can copy music for their students (and vice versa) without having to obtain specific permissions from copyright holders. The purpose of this website is to share unofficial transcriptions for the same purposes. Copyright law and so called "fair use" regulations fall into various grey areas around the sharing of sheet music over the internet. For example, no artist can copyright an improvised solo, so while a musician might own the rights to a specific piece, they do not own the rights to the notes in their solos, which makes it ok for us to share them freely. Also, a chord progression cannot be copyrighted as no one can possibly claim ownership of something like that (maybe Metallica). However, copying a song transcription from another source and claiming it as your own does infringe on copyright law, so don't do that. If the works you submit are you own interpretations, there is no infringement on any copyright law.

5.) Dude! I found one of my transcriptions on your site that I want removed/given credit for!

Please contact me if you find anything of yours on this website and would like to have it removed, or have your name and a link to your website attached to it. I don't personally go through every piece that is uploaded, so I sometimes am clueless if the information entered on the upload form is incorrect/incomplete. My official position is to remove anything by request with no questions asked IF you can provide me with proof that you are the indiviudal who created the work/transcription (if your email address matches the one on the page, for example). Everything sent to me is strictly confidential and no personal information will ever be posted on this site or given away/sold to anyone.

6.) Hey buddy! There are some works on this site that are copyrighted and you are giving them away for free, what gives?!

Again, I don't have time to personally go through every piece of work that is sent to me and make sure it is the submitter's own work, public domain or falls into a "fair use" guideline. If you are the copyright holder of a work you find on this site, contact me right away and I will have it removed immediately, no questions asked.

7.) I downloaded a work and there is a page missing/missing part/wrong note/unreadable etc...

As I said above, the only files I have are the ones on this site. If there is a part of a piece missing there is unfortunately nothing I can do, as the file you are seeing is the only one available to me. Luckily, I believe this is a rare occurance, but if it happens you might have to correct/fill in the blanks yourself.

8.) Who makes "official transcriptions"? How much more accurate are they than the ones on this site?

Artists seldomly have the time (or the means) to publish their own transcriptions of their own works. Most of the so called "official" transcriptions you will see are done by musicians who are sanctioned by the artist (or publisher) to transcribe their work, for the purpose of distributing it for profit. The quality and accuracy of the vast majority of transcriptions on this site can easily be compared to any official transcription. If a transcription makes it to this website that is not considered by the to be accurate, it will receive negative comments and will be either removed or updated. This insures the quality of most of the music on this site. Still, I do highly support the buying of official sheet music as most of the time the artist will see some money from the sale, even though publishers receive most of the profit.

9.) I am having trouble uploading/downloading/any other possible thing.

If you are having any recurring troubles with the site, please contact me!

10.) I get taken to an error page whenever I try to download a Finale or Sibelius file.

This is a recurring problem with these types of files in certain browsers. If this is happening to you, simply right click on the link you wish to download and select "save file as". Hopefully I will be able to remedy this problem very soon (as soon as I figure out how, that is).

11.) What do the abbreviations next to some of the files stand for?

Arr. -> As Arranged By (this is used when the file differs or has been arranged differently from the recorded or official version). I usually put this next to submissions where the uploader has indicated it is his/her own arrangement of another tune.

Per. -> As Performed By

w/ -> With

V. -> Version (for songs with a few different transcriptions)

12.) Can I upload a video of me playing a tune/transcription and have it put on the Mind For Music video/Youtube page?

Aboslutely! I hope to be doing more and more of this in the future, please contact me for more info on this if you are interested!